Eternity
by EvilMudkip
Summary: "I'm not going anywhere without you."


**AN : TRIGGER WARNING! This fanfic contains school shooting scenes!**

Kyle slammed his hand down on his alarm clock, groaning. He really didn't want to go to school today. Generally, he didn't want to go, but he just felt that today was going to be a shitty day and he really didn't want to go. He knew his mom wouldn't let him off with that, though. It was the last week of school before summer though, so it would all be over soon. He hauled himself out of his bed and stumbled over to his closet and pulled on a white t-shirt, and put his orange coat over it. He also pulled on a pair of pants and his shoes, and his green ushaka, making sure it covered most of his curly ginger hair. He sauntered downstairs, and noticed his breakfast was already lying on the table. His mom must have been up earlier. Nobody else was downstairs yet, so he ate his cereal in silence by himself. He decided to phone Stan. Even though they walked to school together and did practically everything together, Kyle couldn't get enough of him. He didn't know if love was too strong of a word, but that was what it felt like to him, love. It didn't really matter, though. He was sure he'd eventually get over it, because Stan would never return his feelings. To his dismay, Stan didn't pick up the phone. Kyle frowned, but didn't bother calling him back. He'd see him soon enough, anyways. He cleared up his breakfast and heading through to the hallway, hoisting his bag onto his back and yelling a 'bye' to his parents who didn't reply, but he heard them moving around upstairs, so he just shrugged it off. He stepped out of his house and closed the door behind him, before walking down to the bus stop where he met everyone every morning. As he kicked snow off of the path in front of him as he headed there he thought about how great summer was going to be. Usually during summer the snow completely melted, so him and Stan had already planned all the stuff they were going to do – they were going to go to theme parks, spend afternoons just running through the town, play video games, have sleepovers every night, and maybe, Kyle though, he'd have the guts to tell Stan how he felt.  
Not yet though.  
He approached the bus stop, disappointed to see only Kenny was there. He was always there early, and Kyle didn't blame him – he knew how his parents were. He knew they fought a lot, and he genuinely felt bad for Kenny. Kenny waved at him as he stood at his normal place at the bus stop and he smiled back. Kenny was preoccupied by something on his phone (probably porn, Kyle assumed) so he didn't say anything to him. Within five minutes Cartman was there, and Kyle just ignored him and his taunts. It had gotten easier to do over the years. He had put up with it for as long as he could remember, and he was fourteen now, so it was a lot easier to do. Despite the fact he was fourteen he still went to South Park 'elementary' because it was the only school in the town, and the only one that taught kids from four years old to sixteen. It was strange, having so many kids in one school but you got used to it. And as Kyle turned away from Cartman sneering at him he saw Stan running up the path towards him, grinning. He tackled Kyle in a huge hug like he did every morning for no particular reason, and Kyle hugged him back, much to Cartman's disgust as he whispered 'homos' while staring at them. They both brushed it off though as they released from their hug, grinning. They talked about various things before the bus arrived, mainly about what they were going to do in summer. Stan was a lot more excited about it than Kyle had originally anticipated, and he was glad he wasn't the only one looking forward to it. The bus eventually pulled up to the bus stop and they all got on, Kyle and Stan sitting beside eachother. They talked the whole time, all the way to school until they had to go into class and sit down. Their teacher changed everyday because the school had such an odd system and so many students, and the teacher that walked in today happened to be Mr. Garrison. Nobody in the class really minded, because when you had him as a teacher you could get away with a lot more than with some of the other teachers they had. They started with history work that morning – the morning period was an hour and a half long, and they had history and maths for 45 minutes each then, recess was twenty minutes long, the period before lunch was another hour and a half and they had English and then German, and then lunch which was an hour long, then the last period of the day, which was an hour long and consisted of art and music. History was always boring, and half the class normally spent it sleeping. Kyle wasn't one of those people, though – he enjoyed learning, and he wanted a good job. He wanted to do well in his life, so he payed attention during school, no matter how bored he got. The same went for maths, most people hated it as well so they just slept through it. Craig was nearly guaranteed to be sleeping during every class, much to Clyde's amusement. He often took pictures of Craig sleeping during class on his phone, and he had practically an entire album's worth of pictures of Craig sleeping on his phone. Nobody understood what he found so funny about his best friend sleeping during class, but nobody questioned it because nobody really gave a shit. The bell finally rang for recess, which snapped Craig straight out of his slumber and he jumped up, sending Clyde into a fit of giggles. Kyle got up to leave the class, and waited at the door for Stan. He caught up with him, and they headed outside into the snow covered school yard. They sat on one of the fences together, and talked. Talking was one of their favourite things to do for some reason, they had often stayed up all night at their sleepovers just talking to eachother.  
"So dude," Stan began "what theme park are we gonna go to first in the summer?"  
"Hmm, I dunno. You can choose, I'm not very experienced with theme parks." Kyle laughed.  
"Really? Do you not like rollercoasters or something? Don't worry, I can hold your hand when we go on them." Stan laughed.  
"Oh Mister Marsh, oh," Kyle pretended to swoon and they both laughed. Their laughter stopped as Wendy walked past them. It wasn't that Kyle hated Wendy, but it was always awkward when she was around. Her and Stan had broken up a few weeks prior, and it was still pretty awkward between them. Usually they were back together in a few days, but that wasn't the case this time. Stan had told Kyle he was done with her, but he never told him why they broke up. He said he would one day, but Kyle hadn't received the answer yet. Wendy nodded at the two of them before Bebe took her by the arm and they ran off to the other side of the school yard near a path where visitors came in. They where around 15 minutes through recess before a man wearing dark blue jeans, a black hoodie, black shoes and black gloves opened the gate and began to walk down the visitor entrance path before he stopped halfway down, a few feet away from Bebe and Wendy. He reached into the pockets on his hoodie and curled his hand around something. Bebe was the first to realise what it was, but she realised to late as the bullet shot clean through her head, spattering crimson blood everywhere which stood out against the white snow. There was absolute silence and then everyone was running. It was frantic and terrifying and Kyle never let go of Stan's hand the whole time as they ran into the school with everyone else, a fatal mistake, but what other choice did they have? Kyle promised that if he didn't get out of here Stan would. Stan would not die today if Kyle could help it, he promised himself that much. He saw his classmates all around him, scrambling into anywhere they could – closets, lockers, classrooms, anywhere they could. Kyle grabbed Stan and shoved him into a large locker and he climbed in with him, shutting it firmly behind them. This was one of the teacher's lockers so it was much larger than the student's ones, and the two of them easily fitted in it, but it was still kind of cramped. Cartman ran into a classroom by himself, and ducked into one of the cupboards, hiding under all the junk that was stored in it. Token, Wendy and Jimmy clambered into one of the cupboards in the hallway, piling stuff in front of them to try and defend themselves. Tweek ran into a separate smaller cupboard, clambering over cardboard shelves to a shelf at the top, and he lay there shivering in fear. Kevin who had Red by the hand followed by Annie ran to one of the cupboards at the end of the hallway, and Clyde and Craig managed to fit themselves both into one of the teacher's lockers as well. Everyone else fled to different areas of the school, and they were all scattered around. Stan and Kyle heard some gunshots, but they weren't anywhere near them. They were down a few hallways, so it was nobody they knew.  
"Oh god, oh fuck, oh man," Stan kept repeating quietly, his whole body shaking. Kyle was on the verge of tears and he wrapped his arms around Stan in a hug.  
"Kyle," Stan whispered, his face damp "Are we...Are we going to be okay?" his voice shook with every word and Kyle just clung to him.  
"If I'm not, you will be." he told him.  
"No way," Stan whispered to him. "I'm not going anywhere without you."  
"You'll be fine, Stan," Kyle told him, sobs wracking his body. "You're going to be completely fine, okay?"  
"Not without you." Stan sobbed, his hands gripping Kyle's back. They both cried to eachother quietly as another gunshot went off, closer to where they were but still a fair distance away.  
"Stan," Kyle whispered to him. "Stan, I have to tell you something." His voice was shaking out of fear and anxiety, and he knew it was now or never that he could tell him and that he shouldn't be scared and that they would both be okay, everything was going to be just fine- another gunshot, this time closer, and he gripped Stan and hushed him until he stopped sobbing and managed to finally choke out "Yes?"  
"I love you."  
And Stan held onto Kyle stronger than he ever had and choked out "I love you too." And they were both sobbing in eachother's arms, sniffling and scared and most importantly together.  
A cupboard was slammed open just across from where they were and they sat in dead silence, not daring to move. They heard Wendy scream, heard Token yell and then a gunshot. Another scream from Wendy, Token shouting god damn it and then another gunshot. And another. Nobody dared to move. There was no more yelling and no more screaming and they weren't ever going to see Wendy or Token or Jimmy again. People they had taken for granted gone in the blink of an eye. They were never going to talk to them again, and if they did see them it would be as bloody, still and lifeless corpses being taken away. They didn't know where anyone was, they had no idea if they'd ever see anyone again. They didn't know where Kenny was, where Butters was, they had no idea where most of their friends were. It was so cruel how they could be taken so swiftly. There was a yelp and someone thudding to the ground. Tweek had jumped from where he was stationed in the closet and was making a break for it.  
Another gunshot and a sharp, pain filled yell and more blood spattering all over the floor.  
He never made it out.  
Craig and Clyde smashed out of their locker this time, their hands tightly grasped together. They stared the man dead in the eyes. They knew there was no hope, but maybe they could spend more time together soon someplace else.  
Blood spattered all over the wall behind them.  
And then they were gone, together.  
The man headed back up to the top of the hallway, away from where Stan and Kyle were situated. They didn't dare move, even as he went into the classroom at the top where Cartman was. They heard police sirens outside, and the man in the classroom shouting some incoherent words. Neither of them knew who was still alive or not, and they didn't know if he had Cartman yet. As much as Kyle hated Cartman, he couldn't bring himself to hope he had. Stan tugged at Kyle's arm and pointed to the locker.  
"We could go," he told him softly. "We could try."  
"Stan-"  
"Kyle." Stan cut him off. "You know as well as I do there's no hope. We can at least try." Kyle's throat was dry and he nodded in reply. Stan breathed in heavily "Okay. Ready?" he asked. Kyle nodded again and in a few short seconds they were running down the hallway together. The noise of Stan kicking open the locker must have alerted the man as he turned from where he was in the classroom and shot one bullet at them. It hit Kyle in his thigh and the pain was incredible. He yelled out in pain and his leg collapsed under him, but Stan convinced him to keep going. Another bullet shot. Stan was hit in the arm and it was his turn to yelp out in pain. He kept going though, he carried Kyle out of the door and they were swarmed round by police. Neither of them could see, the pain was unbearable and they passed out holding eachother's hands.

It was dark.  
It was really dark.  
Kyle could barely see anything and he didn't understand what was going on.  
"Hey," he heard a voice say. "Look up."  
He looked up and above him stood Craig, who had Clyde's hand grasped in his own. They both looked paler than they normally would be, and it looked like if you touched them you might go straight through them. Kyle choked out a gasp.  
"Craig, Clyde? Are you guys-"  
"Yes. We're dead Kyle." Clyde replied pointed to a large hole in his forehead where he had been shot.  
"Does this mean? Am I?" Kyle asked, his voice shaking.  
"No. Not exactly," Clyde began. "You yourself aren't dead, but a part of you is." He explained. Craig nodded and continued on what Clyde had been saying.  
"Your heart is gone," he told him. "The centre of your being, if you will."  
"Your reason for living," Clyde elaborated. "Your core, pretty much." They stared at Kyle as he tried to process what they could possibly mean. His heart couldn't be gone because if he was he would be dead, and how would it even disappear? It made no sense to him. He thought back to what had happened. Getting on the bus, talking to Stan, telling Stan.  
Stan.  
It clicked.  
His reason for living, his core, the centre of his being was Stan. And that meant that Stan was gone.  
Stan was dead.  
Craig and Clyde seemed to understand when he had finally comprehended it, as they moved out of the way and Stan was standing there. His complexion was paler than usual, just like Craig's and Clyde's, and it looked like if Kyle lunged forward to touch him at that very moment he would slip through him. Stan's expression was soft and sad.  
"Kyle..." he whispered.  
"Stan. Is there any way..." Kyle choked out, tears making there way down his face. "Is there any way you can come back? Is there any way we can be together?" Stan looked solemnly at Craig and Clyde.  
"Kyle," he began, his voice shaking "Yes. To answer your second question, there is. But, let me explain this to you first. What happened after you passed out was the man came back out again and before the police could grab him he shot at you. But I shielded you and it hit me," he gestured to his stomach "right in the stomach. I was dead instantly. Right now you're in critical condition at the hospital. You've lost a lot of blood from the gunshot in your leg. Now, to what you were asking. I'm dead, it's the end for me, but there is a way for us to be together, if that's really what you want." Kyle nodded.  
"It is."  
"But Kyle," Craig interrupted "you still have a chance to live."  
"But like you said Craig, my reason for living is gone." Kyle replied. Stan sighed.  
"There's no changing your mind, is there?" Stan asked. Kyle shook his head.  
"Alright then. What you can do is if you just take my hand it'll kill your body. You'll be dead, Kyle. Your family will have to deal with it." Kyle sighed, and he crossed his arms thinking. His family was important to him, but he was sure it'd be okay. Like Stan had said, Kyle only had a chance of living and besides, Stan was his reason for living in the first place. There wasn't any point going on without him.  
"Stan, nothing is going to change my mind." Kyle told him firmly.  
"Alright," Stan said, his voice full of remorse. "Take my hand then." Kyle took Stan's hand in his own and he felt like his insides were becoming light. It felt like they were all shutting down, one by one, but it wasn't painful like he had always dreaded death would be, it was peaceful and it was nice. And then Kyle's complexion was paler like theirs and then he was with Stan in a field.  
"It's pretty much what you always dreamed your life would be like here," Stan explained to him. "It's everything you've ever dreamed."  
"And for me that was an eternity with you." Kyle told him.  
And he got just that.


End file.
